HARRISBURG (February 10, 2015) – House Majority Leader Dave Reed is “very confident” a bill to sell off the state liquor system will pass his chamber days before Gov. Tom Wolf makes his first budget pitch to the Legislature next month.“I think we have a budget discussion ahead of us and we're going to be looking for revenue, and I don't think anyone wants to turn down a potential revenue source and take it off the table immediately,” said Reed (R-Indiana).Reed said the House will schedule a full, five-day session for the week of Feb. 23. He offered little detail on a proposal, other than to say he plans to initially pass something “as close to” the bill that passed the House in March 2013, which he said will serve as “a starting point.”“Like with any piece of legislation, there may be minor changes, perhaps major changes, depending on how the negotiations go,” Reed said. But Wolf and House Democrats are pushing for “modernization” options.

“Gov. Wolf does not support the privatization of the state’s liquor system. However, the governor looks forward to working with members of the Legislature to vastly improve the system to give consumers more options and make sales more convenient,” said spokesman Jeff Sheridan.

Some options Wolf could support include removing Sunday sales limitations, ensuring prices are competitive with other states, opening small retail stores in places like supermarkets, and allowing direct shipment of wine and spirits, Sheridan said.

House Democrats are “firmly opposed” to privatization proposals, said Bill Patton, spokesman for House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny.

“With the state facing a large﻿ structural budget deficit, it would be foolish to forfeit a valuable, revenue-producing asset like the wine and spirit shops just to get an uncertain amount of one-time revenue,” Patton said, adding House Democrats will continue to support “very promising ideas to modernize” the existing system.﻿

Reed said initial passage in the House would probably only happen with Republican support, but he believes with a Democratic governor, House Democrats will eventually have to come to the bargaining table.

“Everybody's going to be at the table,” Reed added. “There's going to have to be a little give and take at the end if you're going to get a budget done by June 30.”

Republican budget analysts in 2013 estimated the final version of the bill that passed the House would generate $1.1 billion in one-time revenue, including $404 million from retail wine and spirit licenses and $573 million from wholesale wine and spirit licenses. Another $137 million could have been generated from 827 grocery store wine licenses and $9 million from upgraded retail dispenser licenses. Democratic analysts said the one-time revenue range would be between $425 million and $800 million.

Reed suggested any potential revenue could be spread over two years, depending on how long it takes to implement the divestiture of the retail and wholesale systems.

A co-sponsorship memo was sent to members last month by House Speaker Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) who carried the liquor privatization torch the past few years. He said he planned to reintroduce his bill from last session.

During the campaign, Wolf said trying to privatize the state-owned liquor stores is “inefficient” and “puts good paying, middle class jobs at risk.” The jobs of roughly 3,000 unionized state store clerks are at risk under any privatization proposal, the United Food and Commercial Workers union has argued.